The Well of Ascension suffered from some problems. First, the pacing was not as brisk as the first book, and often became bogged down in characters reminiscing or thinking over the same ideas/reflections over and over. I do not need to hear for the 15th time how it is difficult to be king. The first 14 were plenty. Less reiterating please. It gets redundant.
That... really does not at all match what I remember. Some characters may have thought about certain things several times, but it was not just mindlessly rehashing the same things over and over. Characters develop and learn, and showing that requires showing how their views and thoughts change. It's been a while since I've read the book, but what I remember of the "tough to be king" stuff is not redundant repetition - it's showing Elend getting frustrated, and then Elend learning and improving.
Elend repeating his poor confidence was something he thought over and over for the last 2 books. It became ridiculous by the end. Sorry you don't remember more. Sazed and how he is lost in himself... over and over and over. There was no development until the last 100 pages for Sazed. He just whined the whole book with the exact same thoughts repeated.
I could understand some mild refreshers of the story at the beginning. Time might have elapsed between reading the books. It had the effect of ripping you out of the moment. The story would stop cold for a refresher paragraph on very obvious points from the first book. Maybe this would have been ok if it was during the first 20 pages, but even 400-600 pagesin, random paragraphs would continue to repeat tidbits from the first book! Very jarring, took you out of the moment(as mentioned), wasn't subtle, and was honestly a bit condescending to an intelligent reader.
Got any examples? Beyond early refreshers on the magic systems and such, I did not notice any such phenomenon. And before you ask, I am very intelligent and have an excellent memory.
You want me to go back through 2100 pages and start quoting every paragraph that reminded you- Here is a short list of what was repeated multiple times throughout the second and third books just off the top of my head-
how the lord ruler was killed,
who Vin got her earring from,
how she drew upon the mists,
how allomancy works,
how vin felt at the balls,
what kelsier did-his sacrifice,
what kandra are,
what terrisman are,
what life was like under the lord ruler,
who Vin's brother was,
what happened to vin's brother,
how kelsier survived the pits and snapped,
how vin killed the lord ruler,
how Sazed was pierced through by Marsh,
how marsh turned into an inquisitor,
who left the picture of the flower...
I turned to random pages and checking it out- I did it for about 5 minutes and I came across these 2, which ironically are repeating the same thing 2 books later-
Hero of the Ages- page 106- "Hope is for the foolish..."
Hero of the Ages-page 402-"Reen had died protecting her..." reiterating it again...
hoa- 182- "the book was alendi's logbook..."
HOA-223- "And the walls of course..."
HOA 261- 'They waited"
HOA-265- middle top paragraph- "She felt somewhat..." into the first paragraph "That day..."
HOA 383-"It had been one of Reen's..."
HOA-546- "So Vin did..."
hoa 598- "Somehow, she'd taken..."
Even smaller reminders were annoying-hoa- 222-"Vin crept past the guard post." how many times is this repeated throughout the 3 books? We get it.
Sorry you didn't notice, but I don't see how it could have been overlooked, unless you are used to having things repeated over and over.
With these 2 issues, the pacing and plot suffered. The book also suffered from what many books suffer from, how to satisfyingly end a trilogy. The ending has a rushed feel. Too much of little significance occurs, the scope attempts to be grand, but ends up being obvious, too wordy, and a little preachy.
What, exactly, got more than a passing mention in the ending and was "of little significance"? As for it being obvious, the mountains upon mountains of speculation and debate about it in these forums and elsewhere contradict you pretty thoroughly. It may seem "obvious" in hindsight, but it took plenty of people by surprise. As for wordiness and preachiness, I think you may be a little overly sensitive there.
Everything was rushed. Vin fighting and getting ultimate power, the kandra ovethrowing the 1st gen, to be overthrown by the rebels, to be helped by the people.. the 16% getting their powers, then rushing to another cave, to fight and die... It felt forced and unsatisfying to me.
Sazed got the power and made everything perfect. Obvious and too perfect. Everyone who dies is happy in the afterlife, a clear explanation is documented for everyone still alive in a tomb. Just way too perfect and happy.
As for the ending. It was way too perfect and happy...obvious too. The author was trying to do too much at once right near the end. TIt felt forced and unnecessary. Too much time was spent on infodumping and preaching.
Did the deaths of Elend, Vin, and large portions of the human race mean nothing to you that you think it was "perfect" and "too happy"?"
They lived happily in the afterlife.
Ruin's defeat and the restoration of the world to normal were pretty obvious, yes, but that's an inevitable consequence of the near universality of Good winning in the end in modern fantasy. You don't read a series like Mistborn to find out if Ruin gets beaten, you read it to find out how he gets beaten and what happens to everyone else. Vin's suicide and Sazed ending up with both powers were major surprises for most readers, and then there's the Atium-burning army, the true purpose of the Lord Ruler's storage caches disaster shelters, etc. If you think it was all obvious, either you are thinking with too much hindsight or you are improbably good at recognizing and correctly interpreting foreshadowing.
Sorry, as I said. It was standard fantasy fare ending. Happy and perfect restoration. Add in pages of preaching and everyone living happily ever after in the afterlife.
He could do whatever he wants with the feedback. If in his next trilogy/series, he insists on littering the books with constant reminders of obvious story points, I'll simply stop buying his books. If enough people are turned off by it, they will do the same. If that is what is desired, he can safely ignore the feedback of his readers.
You keep mentioning these constant excessive reminders of obvious things, but you have yet to give any specifics, and if any such excessive redundant reminders are present they are well enough disguised and/or woven into the narrative that you are the first and only person I have EVER seen or heard even mention them, much less complain about them.
I'm pretty sure the author and the editor are aware, since they went over the book many times. I am not the first, nor will I be the last. Fan forums are filled with people who are in complete love with a creator and will speak no ill will, or they will get pounced, like this thread.
Quotes from amazon- "with less of the repetitive soul-searching, angst, "
"Too much preaching about the wonders of faith for my tastes. Too much perfect god-like power,...poor pacing and repetition, deux in the machina and an unsatisfying ending."
"There was way too much repetition about where each character came from, their pasts in this book. We know that already. It was if the author was trying to fill the pages but I got so tired of reading the same sentence over and over again every few pages and every chapter."
"It's still amazing work, satisfying because it tied up all the (major) plot threads (while leaving some to dangle with tantalizing promise). But it was so hurried in the end!"
"In a nutshell, those first 400 pages amount to the repetitive documentation of all the angst suffered by the main characters over a variable number of armies sitting outside their walls, political problems, and "who am I" soul-searching."
"The narrative doesn't flow well, mainly because Sanderson interrupts the flow of the story with constant thoughts and feelings from every single POV character. There is a lot of "inner" dialogue going on in their heads, often reflecting on what the narrative has just explained. This results in a somewhat sluggish pace, forcing us to go through a lot of emo crap which serves little purpose in the overall scheme of things. . ."
The criticisms were made because I really enjoyed the series, despite it getting progressively worse.
You are very much in the minority with that opinion. I, and most of the other people here, think it got progressively better.
Being in the minority does not affect the validity of an opinion. Additionally, many, many reviews on amazon pointed to Hero of the Ages as the worst of the 3. Really, do you expect a fan forum to have much open criticism?
Additionally, people in general like to stick with what they are familiar with and are afraid to be critical of what they love. You see this in every genre of every hobby. Unless something is abysmal or shockingly bad, there are always tons more glowing praise and few negative reviews. Look at congress. They overwhelmingly are supported by their own state, yet congress as a whole has a 19% or less approval rating. Everything is great if it is yours.